


Tunnel Vision

by patwrites



Category: Avengers: Infinity War - Fandom, Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: Cliche, First Dates, Fluff, I plagiarize one (1) John Green quote, I use the lyrics in Stephen's lines and a bit here and there, M/M, Romance, Songfic, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, cloak is a perfect wingman, kind of, my sense of fashion is terrible so I apologize for Tony and Stephen's outfits, so i guess, well technically Stephen does
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 23:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15035792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patwrites/pseuds/patwrites
Summary: "I look around and everything I see is beautiful 'cause all I see is you."Stephen's life has been turned upside down by Tony Stark so there is nothing left to do but make a grand declaration of his love to the subject of his attentions and hope he doesn't get rejected....Right?





	Tunnel Vision

**Author's Note:**

> Just a heads up: in this fic Tony has the arc reactor back in his chest because of Steve. When he fought the supersoldier in Siberia the hits from the shield caused severe damage to Tony's sternum that messed some things up inside so the arc reactor was necessary. A little canon divergence.
> 
> Oh and one more thing: I am Romanian and those who are into tennis know the winner of Roland Gaross (or however the hell this thing is spelled) is Simona Halep, a fellow Romanian. For those who don't know, she's a pretty good tennis player (#1 in the world, *cough*). I make a reference to her in the fic.

It hadn't been easy for Stephen to get close to Tony Stark. And that wasn't because of Tony. Oh no, not at all. In fact, it had been the opposite. The genius was always badgering him with calls, voice mails, texts, impromptu visits with the Iron Man armor or his orange Audi, talking at him a thousand words per second and joking slash flirting with him about as much as he breathed. Which was the exact same reason why Stephen had intended to keep his distance. He more often than not ignored Tony's calls, deleted the voice mails without even listening to them, left his texts on seen or teleported away when Tony came knocking on his door. Stephen used to keep a poker face in place while talking to Tony, trying very hard not to pay attention to his blabbering and deflecting the flirtations like a professional tennis player (Simona Halep had nothing on Stephen Strange).

For a long time he kept this up in a vain effort to avoid getting attached. That was not an option for Stephen. It was already bad enough, what with his developing a sort of fondness and insurmountable reverence for the genius during the Thanos fiasco, without adding the fact that Tony was exactly his type. After all, who could resist those chocolate eyes filled with pain, brilliance, love and knowledge? Or the soft, plump lips that formed such a bittersweet smile or grin? Or, better yet, the incomparable, unique wit and biting snark the man possessed, enough to rival his own?

Stephen Strange was too far gone in his infatuation with Tony Stark to be pulled up to the surface by the time he caught up with his own heart.

To be completely honest, Stephen didn't have the slightest clue about what to do with that revelation. The sudden knowledge that he was utterly, hopelessly, irrevocably in love with Tony had changed everything, turned his world upside down. Tony's presence in his life had changed up and broken all of Stephen's rules ever since they met, but being in love with him changed everything forever for good.

So what to do about that?

That's what the sorcerer had been pondering on for the past three days, all cooped up in the Sanctum with only the Cloak's presence to remind him of basic human necessities such as eating, sleeping, hydrating.

The most sensible thing to do would have been asking Tony out. Not overdoing it with declarations of love, – which were bound to spook him away, knowing Tony's issue with commitment – but instead trying for a more casual approach and taking it from there. Of course, Stephen being Stephen, couldn't just have that, now could he? No, he had to make something big out of it, a manifesto of sorts, big and showy and telling enough to match his ego.

Humility never was Stephen's strong suit, after all.

"I think I've got it!" Stephen suddenly exclaimed in the silence of his room, startling Cloak from where it had been perched on the bed, lazily flicking through a week old issue of Times – Tony's face was on the cover yet again.

His loyal companion made a movement resembling a sigh, as if resigned to Stephen's eccentricity, and floated over to him, fitting snugly on his back, collar up and pristine.

Stephen put on the discarded sling ring from his nightstand and conjured up a portal leading straight to Tony's workshop.

The man's body was almost entirely swallowed up by the car he was under, and his jeans were coated in vaseline and motor oil. DUM-E was stumbling around with a fire extinguisher, looking as out of his depth as ever, while Black Sabbath was pouring out of the workshop's speakers.

"God dammit, DUM-E! I've told you I don't need the damn fire extinguisher. Now put that thing down before you mess something up," Tony muttered from under the car. The bot stopped in its tracks at the mention of its name, but resumed pacing immediately after, fire extinguisher still at the ready. Stephen barely suppressed a chuckle.

"Tony," he called out the name loudly enough to be heard over the general noise of tools, machinery and music he had come to associate with Tony's workshop. The owner of said name lifted up his head and banged it against the car just as he started saying Stephen's name back in greeting – behold, people, your esteemed genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist in all his glory.

"What brings you to my humble abode, oh mighty Smaug?" Tony asked. He had come out from under the car and was now standing up, leaning against the car while wiping his hands on a rag covered in as much motor oil as was on his face and hair – he looked like a toddler left unsupervised with a painting set and a room full of blank walls.

"I've already told you, Tony, to stop calling me that," Stephen sighed.

"But his voice sounds so much like yours! Come on, Blocksberg, you must have heard the similarity. Even Peter did and that boy is as clueless as Drax!"

"Anyway," he successfully brushed off the accurate argument Tony was making and changed the subject, "I came here to see if you've got any plans for this evening."

"I don't think I have. Fri?"

"Your schedule is clear tonight, Boss."

"Done. So, what's this about having a night off? Wanna show me the world on your magic carpet, Aladdin?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Something like that," Stephen smirked. "I'll pick you up at 8, not a minute earlier or later. See you then, Tony."

"See ya, Awesome Facial Hair Bro," Tony replied with a smile.

Stephen nodded once then opened up a portal and stepped back inside the sanctum. He had some phone calls to make.

* * *

"Alright. Cloak, everything ready?"

Cloak nodded enthusiastically, happiness radiating off of it in waves. In the end, it seemed like it was just as, if not more, dedicated to make this perfect as Stephen, and it had helped him put everything in place and make sure it would go well. Now all that was missing was the center of it all, Tony himself. Stephen could only hope his reaction would be a favourable one – his ego didn't allow for a negative answer to even pop into his mind (or was it his insecurities this time?).

"It's now or never," Stephen muttered, more in reassurance for himself than anything, really, and fixed his clothes one more time – dark, skinny jeans, white button up and a pair of red sneakers Tony had gifted him for his birthday last month – before opening up a portal and stepping inside the Tower right at Tony's door at 8 PM sharp. He knocked on the door twice then let his arm fall to his side as he waited for the man to answer.

Tony opened the door a second later, and Stephen's lungs must have been malfunctioning because it seemed like they weren't capable of filtering air anymore as soon as his eyes landed on Tony. He was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans, a gray t-shirt with a black suit jacket over it, and a pair of black snickers. The blue light of the ARC reactor was shining brightly underneath the shirt, beautiful in an eerie way. His hair was longer than he usually kept it, almost similar to his hairdo back in 2008, obviously freshly washed and left to dry on its own – Stephen could smell the coconut shampoo from where he was standing behind the threshold – and a pair of red armor sunglasses was perched on Tony's nose, framing his face beautifully.

It was a simple look, nothing fancy or that different from how Tony usually dressed on their outings, but everything about the man knocked the breath out of Stephen these days.

"Ready, doc?" Tony asked with a grin.

"Shouldn't I ask you that?" Stephen raised an eyebrow.

Tony raised his shoulders and stepped outside his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

"Let's go," he told Tony, then took his arm and led him through the awaiting portal. They stepped through, and Stephen felt Tony squeezing his arm briefly as a gasp escaped his mouth before letting go altogether. Stephen decided to look at Tony to try and gauge out his feelings or thoughts about the surprise, but it was futile.

The fairy lights taped to the walls were illuminating Tony's face and cascading in rainbows across his skin, cheeks, lips – which were parted in a gasp, pink, wet tongue visible just a tiny bit through a set of straight, white teeth. The Aurora Borealis magicked to appear on the ceiling with Wong's help was reflected in Tony's clear, brown eyes. The genius sweeped the room over with a quick once over, taking in the table for two, the plates of rigatoni with bacon and asparagus, the two glasses of wine resting beside them, and the red rose petals carpeting the room, chairs, and table.

It wouldn't have been Stephen's first choice for a – hopefully – first date with Tony, but both Pepper and Col. Rhodes had assured him Tony was a hopeless romantic who swooned over cliches like that one. It didn't come as such a surprise that Tony loved romance, though, after knowing him for this long.

 _'Crazy little thing called love'_ by Queen was pouring over from Stephen's bluetooth speaker, softly streaming through the room. Tony turned to face Stephen, baffled expression still in full force.

"Did you do all this?"

"Yes, I did," he replied, looking at Tony and taking everything in with a fond smile.

"Why?" Tony asked, seemingly not getting it. It looked like Stephen had to spell it out for the soft idiot then.

"Why?" Stephen chuckled. "Because, Tony, I've had these..thoughts in my head dancing for far too long. Sometimes I get the urge to write you a song, to sing to you late at night under your window like some kind of lovesick teenager who watched too much High School Musical growing up.

"Every time I'm close to you the words want to come out. But it's like my mind goes blank and I forget. I can never work up the courage to say what I feel, what I think around you. This thing is too strong.

"Tony, I look around and all I see is beautiful. You know why? Because all I see is you."

Stephen took a few slow steps closer and took Tony's hand in his own, staring into his beautiful, expressive eyes.

"I could be in a room crowded by a million people and all I see would still be you because when I'm with you, Tony, everything else disappears, it fades into the background like white noise."

A small tear had gathered in the corner of Tony's eye, so Stephen took out his handkerchief and wiped it away.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is I've fallen in love with you the way I fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

"Did you just quote John Green at me, Mister Doctor?" Tony laughed wetly, desperately trying to wipe the tears now pouring freely from his eyes.

"So what if I did? For you, I'd sacrifice half the universe," Stephen replied, full of meaning.

Tony's eyes widened.

"Oh damn you, Strange. You've turned me into a sappy teenage girl obsessed with Twilight and Supernatural," he lamented before throwing himself in Stephen's arms. The sorcerer wrapped his arms around Tony's body without hesitation, holding him firmly in place.

"Does that mean I can ask you to a date now?" he asked a few seconds later.

"Yes, you insufferable idiot," Tony laughed, then pulled away from him. He took another look at his surroundings, his eyes settling on the ceiling.

"Is that the real thing?"

"Sort of," Stephen replied. "It's kind of like a mirror to the northern hemisphere."

"Wow. You really went all out, doc," Tony breathed out, still awed at the display.

"Like I said, Tony. For you, anything," he explained, coming over to where Tony was still standing, wrapping his arms around his torso from behind and resting his chin on his shoulder.

Tony twisted his neck to look at him and smiled before returning his gaze to the ceiling.

Stephen saw Cloak from the corner of his eye standing incospicously in the shadows with a phone, obviously taking pictures and no doubt sending them to Peter. He couldn't help but smile in contentment and sigh softly beside Tony's ear.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought with a Kudos, a comment or on my tumblr @armoredavengers!
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


End file.
